This Virginia Beach council member was a Virginia Tech student during the 2007 mass sh00ting. Now he

This Virginia Beach council member was a Virginia Tech student during the 2007 mass sh00ting Now he It was one of the

On Friday afternoon, Rouses hometown of Virginia Beach was witness to its own mass shooting including colleagues at the municipal building where he worked "When I heard this, I immediately jumped into Not again, this will not happen again, this will cannot happen again, I cannot believe this happened here in Virginia Beach, in our great city of Virginia Beach," Rouse told CNN Friday The pain experienced in Virginia Beach will never go away, Rouse said "For some families, itll be there always in our hearts and minds, but theyre not alone

" At Virginia Tech, whose Blacksburg campus is over 300 miles west of Virginia Beach, Rouse said students and faculty were "Virginia Tech Strong" "Now we are Virginia Beach Strong," he said "I can tell you, quite frankly, that after the massacre at Virginia Tech our community came together in Blacksburg Hokies across the world, not even Hokies, but American citizens, we came together So thats something we have to do here in Virginia Beach

We will come together, but you have to let those victims and families know they are not alone, we are in this together" Rouse also said he remembered feeling "sorry and helpless" after the Virginia Tech shooting Now, as a councilman of Virginias largest city, he says he no longer feels that way "I want to be bold in making sure our community is safe," he said, adding that he didnt want anything like this to happen anywhere else in America "We will show our strength here in Virginia Beach

" Although Rouse was not specific on what he felt needed to be done, he did say actions need to reach beyond prayers and donations "I think the first thing we have to do is make sure the families know that we are with them Its not enough to continuously offer our thoughts and prayer, we have to start living by those words in which we pray by," Rouse said, later adding that its up to the leaders to stand up and say "no more of this" Rouse said hes taking the lessons hes learned from the tragedy at Virginia Tech and applying them to this tragedy "We must learn from the mistakes of our past," he said